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Monday, January 26, 2009

Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness

Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness (RAOGK) was established in 1999 as a resource for networking among researchers. RAOGK links researchers who need documents from a distant location with others able to obtain them. RAOGK is a global volunteer organization. With volunteers in every U.S. state and many International locations. This Lincoln, Nebraska, based organization is administered by Bridgett and Dale Schneider. Both are former employees of RootsWeb.com and MyFamily.com. The site is solely funded by contributions from appreciative users and sales from its two online stores: RAOGK Logo Gear and Genealogy For You.

The RAOGK volunteers have agreed to do a free genealogy research task at least once per month in their local area as an act of kindness. While the volunteers of RAOGK have agreed to donate their time for free, the requester MUST PAY the volunteer for his/her expenses in fulfilling the request (copies, printing fees, postage, film or video tape, parking fees, etc.).

Volunteers are expected to reply to a new request between 48 hours and 2 weeks of receipt. This response lets the requester know that the volunteer received the request and whether he or she can honor it or not. The reply should also advise the requester if there will be any reimbursement of costs that may occur and a general idea of that total. The volunteers give a time frame within which they feel they can accomplish the request. If the volunteer cannot honor the request they will let the requester know this as well, so the requester can move on to another volunteer.